Farewell, 2016-17 Russell Westbrook

The Houston Rockets, who are excellent, dispatched Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder 4-1 to move on in the West. Westbrook left this season the way he lived it: scoring like a maniac and watching his bench give up a lead. (In Game 5, the Thunder were +12 in Westbrook’s 42 minutes and -18 in the six minutes he sat. OKC lost by six. This was a common thread throughout the series.)

Westbrook fell one assist short of a triple-double, and shot just 5-18 on three-pointers. (Those 18 attempts tied the single-game playoff record. The others to shoot 18 in a playoff game: Ray Allen, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson.) His final game was, fittingly, a beautiful mess. But the Thunder were competitive with him on the court and a disaster without him. We’ll forever debate whether his style contributes to that fact. Perhaps the Thunder will be restocked by next fall and we’ll see a new look.

Westbrook was the best thing about the NBA all season long. It appears he will win the MVP over the Rockets’ James Harden. He’d rather be going to the second round, of course. Harden’s Houston is still alive, and we’ll be talking much more about them over the next couple of weeks as they face San Antonio or Memphis. Speaking of which …

Playoff Scores …

… And Links Galore

The home team stayed dominant in Spurs vs. Grizzlies. San Antonio put away Game 5 with a late 12-0 run. Kawhi Leonard remains unstoppable. Mike Conley had another great game, but the Patty Mills vs. Andrew Harrison match-up off the bench is just completely untenable for Memphis. We’ll see if David Fizdale has any angles to fix it for Thursday’s game.